This is in reference to the controversy raised by
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh Chief, K.S. Sudershan that Sikhs are Hindus
which was published in many of the newspapers published in Punjab and outside on
January 30-31, 2003. He blames that Britishers deliberately distorted the
meaning of word "dharma" as they did not have any synonymous word in
the dictionary. It is an interesting observation of Sudershan who seems to be
totally ignorant about the Sikh identity and Sikh history prior to Britshers
arrival in India. If Sikh religion has no separate identity then he has to
explain the following historical facts:

- History of Guru Period (Sri Chand , Mohan, Prithi , and Ram Rai
transgressed Sikh beliefs in early Sikh history and were isolated)

- Sikh Scripture delineating independent Sikh identity. 3rd Guru on pg. 360
GGS is very clear "although the Six Hindu systems are prevalent everywhere
but the Guru system is profound and unequalled".

- Martyrdom of the 5th and 9th Guru to uphold religious freedom

- Testimony of Moshan Fani (Muslim Chronicle, 1645)

- Execution of Banda and 740 Sikhs in New Delhi (not even one desecrated
while given the choice to do, 1715-16)

- First Sikh ghalughara in 18th century when governor Yahiya Khan issued
proclamation killing all Sikhs

- Why prices on Sikh heads were fixed by Mughals?

- Misal Raj

- History of Maharaha Ranjit Singh period (His government was know as
Sarkar-i-Khalsa; he issued coins in the name of the Guru and all his princes
were addressed as Khalsa. He was made to appear at Akal Takhat and was granted
Tankhah.)

Sikhism

Vaisnism

Vedantism

Nathism

1. Spiritual experience
is that God is Love-Ocean of virtues. A dynamic experience.

Sach Chit Anand –
Blissful and Quiet.

Sach Chit Ananad–
Blissful and Quietist

Blissful Isolation
Quietist

2. World Real-Arena of
spiritual growth.

Maya

Mithya (Illusion)

Real but a place of
misery.

3. Life Affirming

Life-Negating

World does not exist.

Death to theworld.

4. Monotheism

Pantheism

Monotheism

Pantheism

5. God interested in the world. He is milk to
child, eyes to blind, riches to poor and Helper of the weak. This means
combination between spiritual and empirical life of man.

Dichotomy between spiritual and empirical life
of man. Hence monasticism & Sanyas.

World an illusion –activity
delusion.Sanyas

Yogi vows to withdraw
from the world.

6. Householder’s life
with fullsocial responsibility.

Celibacy and Sanyas

Celibacy and Sanyas

Vow of celibacy and
never towork

7. Equality of man and
woman. Women in charge of missionary districts.

Woman not fit for
Vaishnava path.

Woman a hurdle in
spiritual Path.

Vow of celibacy.Naths do not even eat with Nath woman.

8. Equality and
brotherhood of man.

Hierarchical caste –Sudras
not fit for Bhakti

Accepts caste

Accepts caste. Low
castes not admitted.

9. Man’s spiritual assessment of his virtuous
deeds. By our deeds we are near or away form God. Higher than Truth is
truthful living.

All morality is supernal-moral. To do only
one’s caste duty or ritual acts.

No deeds ritual acts
for man of low intellect.

Vows never to work

10. Work and sharing
essential

Sanyas

Sanyas

Vows never to work

11. Methodology of
remembering God and of virtuous deeds and social responsibility.

Ritualistic, formal, or
emotional dancing, meditational.

Meditational. Also
value of ritualism accepted.

Hath Yoga and Kundalini
Yoga

12. Use of force
accepted if other means fail

Sex-methodology
accepted. Ahimsa.

Ahimsa

Sex-Methodology also
accepted

13. Goal is to be the
instrument of Gods Will.

Merger in Brahman

Realization of I am
Brahman

Vow of Ahimsa, blood
sacrifices done. Merger in Siva

14. Jivan Mukta active and accepts social
responsibility. IN the above context Guru Nanak did three things. He created
a panth and appointed a successor to continue the mission. He identified the
social problems of caste and that of the political oppression. Rejected
Ahimsa as an inviolable rule. Finally Panth was created and Guru Granth was
appointed as Guru in pursuance of the doctrine of Miri and Piri.

Individual salvation.
Ritual duties performed.

No interest in the
world. Unconscious of the world.

Individual Salvation.
No interest in the world – A placeof misery.

Sikhism: A Religion of Numina (Naam) and
not Phenomena

Guru Gobind Singh himself directed the sikhs to follow guru
granth and no other book nor any human being. Numinous experience is inherent in
Frie’s Ahndung (longing), Schleiermachar’s Feeling, Kant’s Things in
Themselves (noumena) and Kapur Singh’s Antithesis of phenomena. It stands for
the holy minus its moral factor and without any rational aspect. It is
irreducible to any other factor. Numinous consciousness involves shaking fear of
repulsion and an element of powerful fascination. It can only be understood by
"ideograms" i.e. not through logic, but only symbolically. The core of
religious experience is inherent in the awareness of non-moral holiness as a
category of value. The numinous experience is the core and base of Sikh religion
and its ingredients i.e. religiously sensitive mind in relation to his/her
apprehension of himself/herself and universe around him/her. The ultimate
reality is not comprehensible through the sensory motor perceptions and
speculations. Sikhism is a religion of Naam (neumina), which is asserted through
30,000 hymns of Sikh scripture through revealed statements, literary similes and
allusions. Naam is God, and God is Naam, and the practice of religion revolves
around the Naam. Sikh religious thought cannot be interpreted through any
phenomenal process.Guru Ganth is a unique scripture and Sikhism has its own
identity as follows:

1. Guru Granth Sahib,
the Sikh Scripture is purely monotheistic. It accepts only one God and rejects
all other deities, spirits, angels, etc. Only God is immortal. All other deities
are mortal and prone to death.

2. The religion of Guru Granth Sahib, being free from
inhibitions of any kind regarding the way of life and its adaptability in all
the religions of the world vouches its universality. It is not a religion of the
chosen people (like Judaism), but instead, it is the religion of the entire
humanity. It raises above all the regional barriers.

3. It rejects all ritualism, formalism, and symbolism. It has
no belief in any sacrament.

4. It focuses all its attention on the enfoldment of
discipline for the attainment of the unity of the soul with God. The emphasis
has been laid on the adoption of godly qualities by the seeker.

5. It repudiates the prevalent theories of Creation and scans
the universe as the wok of the Creator, whose existence pulsates everywhere in
His Creation. The extent and expanse of the Creation of the Infinite Lord cannot
be delimited.

6. It lays great emphasis on honest and sincere labor. Its
religion is the religion of workers and householders. Therefore it decries the
renunciation and all types of ascetic practices.

7. It advocates the equality of all human beings,
irrespective of birth and sex. The woman is in no way inferior to man. It
rejects all distinctions of caste and color.

8. The State has to play its part in the provision of food,
shelter, and clothing to the members of the society. There can be no devotion,
if the individual is not carefree about his requirements.

9. It presents a balanced combination of action, devotion,
and knowledge. Whereas the body has to work for the well-being of family and
society while the mind has to remain in tune with the Lord. Service is, thus,
the motto of an adherent of Guru Granth Sahib. His best service toward the Guru
and the Lord is the remembrance to the Name.

10. The religion of Guru Granth Sahib is most practical. The
devotee overbrims with love and devotion. The whole world appears as a family to
him. The earth is an abode of Dharma for him.

11. Breaks dichotomy between spiritual and empirical lives.

12. Rejects Ascetism.

13. Rejects Varnasharm Dharma which incorporates basic caste
system.

14. Rejects Ahsma.

15. God Never incarnates. He is Un-Incarnated and Transcendent.

World-View and Guru Granth

Both the surveys of Maxwebster and Schwitzer bring out that
all Indian religions are life negating and suggest withdrawal from life. This is
quite true of Buddhism, Jainism, Vaishnavism, Vedanta and even the Sant
Tradition. All these Hindu systems as indicated above, involve withdrawal from
life, and denial of social responsibility. Evidently, systems that recommend
Ahimsa, asceticism, monasticism, Sanyasa, celibacy or withdrawal from life,
reject every kind of social involvement, much less social responsibility, as an
unwanted bondage. S. K. Mitra, who has surveyed the ethics of all Hindu systems,
says "that the common feature of all doctrines of the ideal life, or
Moksha, is the conception of ideal as strictly moral idea." It is so,
because all these systems accept a clear dichotomy between the spiritual path
and the empirical path, and, thus life-negation is a natural and logical
consequence of all these religious systems and their world-view. But Sikhism, as
the hymns and lives of the Gurus express and demonstrate very clearly, has a
world-view of life affirmation, since in the Sikh ideology there is an
inalienable combination between the spiritual life and the empirical life of
man. For, whatever is within the domain of God, is also within the sphere of
operation of the Godman. In short, Sikhism is a whole-life religion with a
world-view entirely opposed to that of other Indian religions.

Guru
Granth as a New Scripture with New Ideology with New Religious Experience

Vedas and Upanishads are without doubt the scriptures of all
Hindu systems. But Sikhism completely denies their authority, and Guru Nanak
even calls some of their injunctions to be wrong. The Sikh Gurus were so clear
and particular about the independent and separate identity of their religious
system and the complete originality and newness of its character, that they took
very significant stage which no other religious leader in the world had done.
They specifically compiled and authenticated the Sikh Scripture. Secondly, since
the time of its compilation in 1604 A.D., it is the complete repository of and
the final authority on the Sikh ideology and its doctrines. Since the Gurus
called it revealed Bani, it has been regarded as the Shabad having the sanction
of God. The Tenth Master took two important steps in this regard. First, he
introduced the Nash doctrine, thereby making a complete and final break with all
other Indian ideologies. Neither the Vedas and Upanishads, nor any other
religious systems is given any sanction or accepted as authentic. We all know
that the Bani of Bhagats in the Guru Granth is a selection. It is accepted only
to the extent it is in consonance with the doctrines of the Gurus. And even
where differences seem to be suggested, the Gurus have made adequate comments
and clarifications. The Bani of Bhagats outside the Granth Sahib is not given
any authenticity. Secondly, he made the Sikh Scripture not only as the exclusive
vehicle of the Guru’s message, but also gave it the status of the Guru, Guide
or Teacher of the Sikhs. The creation and sanction of Guru Granth as the sole
scripture of the Sikhs reveals that the Gurus were very clear and conscious of
its independent and separate character, and wanted their ideology to remain as
such without chance of any addition, alteration, or any departure from its
authenticity or contents